Advertisement

States, DOJ ask court to revive antitrust suit against META…

A group of 46 U.S. states, D.C. and Guam on Monday asked a federal court to reinstate an antitrust lawsuit against Meta Platforms, Inc., which owns the social media platform Facebook, after a lower court said the plaintiffs had waited too long to sue. 

The effort is led by New York and includes all states except Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and South Dakota, according to court documents. The group is seeking to challenge Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. 

New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood argued Monday before a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that the lower court was wrong in its decision to dismiss the case without discovery last year on the basis that the states had waited too long to take action, under the legal doctrine of “laches.”  

“Forty-six states, and D.C. and Guam, have alleged that Facebook, now Meta, has used its monopoly power to buy or bury potential competitors,” Underwood said in oral arguments. 

The states allege Facebook did this, in part, through acquiring competitors and attempting to curtail potential competitive behavior on the platform. 

“As a result, it has stifled competition and denied consumers the improvements in service and other benefits that competition provides. The states bring this action to protect the public from the continuing harm caused by this conduct,” Underwood said. 

Underwood countered the argument that …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

U.S. National Debt

The current U.S. national debt:
$34,573,199,545,841
Send this to a friend